Danger! High Postage

Of no specific waterways relevance

Monday, December 19

A Different Kettle Of Fish: The EndI have no internet access at the present time, so the passing of ADKOF was marked with silence. Expect D!HP back and refreshed in the new year with 17mb broadband. And of course, before that, the D!HP end of year polls - who will win chippy of the year?

In the meantime, let us pay tribute...And so it ended with me throwing two mince pies into the canal. A Different Kettle Of Fish officially died on the 6th of December, having existed for sixteen glorious months.

ADKOF started as a way of getting a few of my friends to come out for a drink on my birthday last year. How could they use the old excuses like: "I'm busy", "I'm washing my hair", "I don't like you any more", "Leave me alone or I'm calling the police", or the classic "Don't ever call this number again or I'll kill you..."

After stealing the name from my friend Dean's former radio show, we had a club night with three DJs, in a cool venue (The Sunflower Lounge). Soon we moved to Selly Oak and even there was even a spin off night out of town (in Bath). Then the autumn run at the Flapper and Firkin, culminating in the tossing of pies into an adjacent waterway.

We had a haphazard approach to promotion...

Though we did have very nice flyers and posters...

Bands loved playing for us...

Because we paid them too much...

Though they usually hated most of the other bands on the bill...

Because I insisted on booking bills featuring bands of wildly different styles...

And we spent most of our profits on biscuits...

Thanks to everyone that came along to one of the nights and to all the bands that played (in chronological order): Ruth Theodore, Mobrown, Zilch, Sinistra, StrangeTime, Beats Capri, Midas, Graham Parsnip Liquidiser Torture Thnk-Tank Experiment, When Bears Attack, 51 Breaks, Drug*Mule, RedShed, Hey! Pablo, Motorcyclestunts, The Pubic Fringe and Trash Fashion.

Thanks to the bands who wanted to play but had to pull out, The Rock Of Travolta, (Hooker), And What Will Be Left Of Them, Old School Tie

Big apologies to Smilex for having to cancel the November gig

And a big hello to The Program, who split up but neglected to mention this to us before their gig at ADKOF - presumably they were too busy combing their mullets.

Other fantastic bands that I would have tried to book for future nights include: Twisted Charm, We Start Fires, Bromhead's Jacket, Bom and his Magic Drumstick, Mirror! Mirror!, The Smears, The Ivories, The Vichy Government, Dead! Dead! Dead!, The Favours, MC Lars. If they play near you - make sure you go and see them and tell 'em A Different Kettle OF Fish sent you.

In the future some of the ADKOF founder members will continue with their own night Wrapped In Plastic.

If you think of A Different Kettle Of Fish as The Stone Roses then Wrapped in Plastic are The Seahorses, whereas I'm Reni (It's the hat!) - not sure who Ian Brown is though.

I have learnt many lessons along the way, which I may or may not share with you in the future - and in this brief time I've fallen in and now out of love with the music scene in Birmingham.

There's still lots of great bands and nights in the city - you've just got to wade through all the mediocrity and find them.

Remember - Support your local band - StrangeTime play at the Actress & Bishop on Friday 20 January - Onstage 11:00pm.